The string section is one of the most misunderstood sections of the orchestra. This video seeks to tackle the subject from the practical perspective of a composer active in the professional orchestral world. The first section deals with the basic principles of the string orchestra. The second section is a tutorial showing one possible way to arrange Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28, No. 9 for string orchestra, keeping in mind Chopin's original sonic palette.
I had a lot of support early on so doing my best to pay it forward (and yes this one took 12 hours to film/edit/publish it was a lot, but happy to do it 🤓)
So glad I found your channel. I'm an armature composer and wanting to learn about basic orchestration for orchestra. Your approach is easy to follow and very clear. Thank you
Another thing that string players can do is instead of having to fit notes into either “bowed together” or “bowed separately” they can put to notes in the same bow that are articulated separately. You can notate this with staccato marks, tenuto marks, or even writing in two up/down bows. You can also just add whatever articulation you would like to a slur. I’m a violinist btw.
^^^this is amazing thank you for this comment! I started talking about this, but I cut the footage out because I felt I was getting away from the Chopin assignment by talking about all the different articulations that are possible with the bow. I think this would be great for another video especially if I had a violinist available to demonstrate, that would be an amazing way to show this!
Hi Saad, great video, It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on combining Middle Eastern Maqams into an orchestra setting, what are some possibilities in fusing them together, and what is the room for harmony/triadic material. I often find that the harmony mostly comes out of the intertwining of the voices in the mode, but it seems it may be more incidental than necessarily seeking function.
I’ve been searching lately for the latter way to do it. It’s an ongoing search. The former way like you said is incidental though I don’t see anything necessarily wrong with that approach. I just want to dive as deep as I can and find connections that I haven’t seen/heard before. Maybe one day I’ll make a video about this.
Really looking forward to more of these mini-masterclasses you have been posting...I especially would like to learn more about modern percussion techniques and how the written dynamic translates into the live concert hall setting. As for this Chopin prelude, I think you picked a good one to solve some unique problems an arranger would encounter when translating it for the strings alone...I mean, the whole prelude is in the bass clef for one thing, so then thinking about transposing it makes sense, etc. I realize you only had the time to do the first few bars, but for anyone wanting to arrange the whole prelude, it may be noted that the bass line drops down to a low Eb and even a low C later on, so one would do well to map out the entire piece beforehand and then make decisions based on the arrangement (which is what you do during the step where Saad said follow the score with the recording, etc)...also, I don't think it was mentioned, but there is Chopin's unique use of the piano's sustain pedal-and its frequent dampening-that can be utilized when making arrangements of this sort too...please keep them coming Saad!!!
Goodness notating it by hand. I would’d have found an xml of the piano piece and copy and paste exploded into the string parts. Can you do that in Sibelius? I know it is a bit old school nowadays with so many having switched to Dorico Pro.
@@saadhaddadmusic True of course and I was just a little surprised as it is laborious even in Dorico Pro which is streets ahead of Sibelius for note input. One barely needs to use the mouse which was the absolute bain of my life before I made the switch.
Awesome, thanks! Quick question, how would the string players split a 3 or 4 note divisi? I have honestly avoided writing them because i dont know how they work technically and how i would go about making the parts, but id love to understand it.
I avoided this on purpose too in the video - the concertmaster will typically decide on who plays what. So on top you would write “div. a 3” or a 4 or a 5 etc, and then the concertmaster will divide the pitches as equally as they can in the section. This is usually handled before the first rehearsal so that no time is wasted during the rehearsals on this.
Functioning concertmaster here, this is accurate (Saad is a pro) but if it’s helpful to you: 2 line divisi is very often by person, 3 line divisi is often by stand (each stand is on a line), and 4 line divisi is by person. By person implies outside/inside.
Advice and insight like this from a real life concert master, is priceless to a composer like me, thank you...and yet another reason to never miss a Saad Haddad post emerges!!!
I would like to express my appreciation to your wonderful tutorial, but I have some questions if you do not mind. In the original piano score in E Major, the upper voice plays G GG G A / A BB B B. while Violin1 in F Major scale, plays C CC C D /D EE E E. However when you transpose from E Major to F Major, the notes will only moves up one semitone. Accordingly, it is supposed to be A AA AB / B CC C C. The second point is why you lowered Violin1 one octave down than in the piano score? The third point, you did not point out to the pedal on/off of the piano and its effect on the strings score. Thank you again.
1. Look closely at the original score, it’s in bass clef, not treble. 2. Pedal is on every chord change, so no other way to account for that other than what I did. And whichever hall where this would be played will also have some nice reverb I would hope :)
You can but it’ll look like a tie. And the player will change bow anyway at that spot. The context of the passage will allow them to know to play those 2 notes as legato as possible. Let me know if that helps.
The string section is one of the most misunderstood sections of the orchestra. This video seeks to tackle the subject from the practical perspective of a composer active in the professional orchestral world. The first section deals with the basic principles of the string orchestra. The second section is a tutorial showing one possible way to arrange Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28, No. 9 for string orchestra, keeping in mind Chopin's original sonic palette.
I don't have words for how valuable these videos are. The amount that you put out with the quality each are is fantastic.
I had a lot of support early on so doing my best to pay it forward (and yes this one took 12 hours to film/edit/publish it was a lot, but happy to do it 🤓)
So glad I found your channel. I'm an armature composer and wanting to learn about basic orchestration for orchestra. Your approach is easy to follow and very clear. Thank you
Welcome to the channel 🙏🏽 let me know what else you’d like to know 🤓
Another thing that string players can do is instead of having to fit notes into either “bowed together” or “bowed separately” they can put to notes in the same bow that are articulated separately. You can notate this with staccato marks, tenuto marks, or even writing in two up/down bows. You can also just add whatever articulation you would like to a slur. I’m a violinist btw.
^^^this is amazing thank you for this comment! I started talking about this, but I cut the footage out because I felt I was getting away from the Chopin assignment by talking about all the different articulations that are possible with the bow. I think this would be great for another video especially if I had a violinist available to demonstrate, that would be an amazing way to show this!
Thanks! Just about to write a string orchestra piece for a levels composition!!
Yay 😁 it’ll be fun
Hi Saad, great video, It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on combining Middle Eastern Maqams into an orchestra setting, what are some possibilities in fusing them together, and what is the room for harmony/triadic material. I often find that the harmony mostly comes out of the intertwining of the voices in the mode, but it seems it may be more incidental than necessarily seeking function.
I’ve been searching lately for the latter way to do it. It’s an ongoing search. The former way like you said is incidental though I don’t see anything necessarily wrong with that approach. I just want to dive as deep as I can and find connections that I haven’t seen/heard before. Maybe one day I’ll make a video about this.
Very interesting and educational, thanks so much for this lesson. Definitely hungry for more
More coming 🤓
Thank you, Saad!
Absolutely 🙏🏽
Great video! Very much enjoying the content you're putting up!
Thank you John!
Really looking forward to more of these mini-masterclasses you have been posting...I especially would like to learn more about modern percussion techniques and how the written dynamic translates into the live concert hall setting. As for this Chopin prelude, I think you picked a good one to solve some unique problems an arranger would encounter when translating it for the strings alone...I mean, the whole prelude is in the bass clef for one thing, so then thinking about transposing it makes sense, etc. I realize you only had the time to do the first few bars, but for anyone wanting to arrange the whole prelude, it may be noted that the bass line drops down to a low Eb and even a low C later on, so one would do well to map out the entire piece beforehand and then make decisions based on the arrangement (which is what you do during the step where Saad said follow the score with the recording, etc)...also, I don't think it was mentioned, but there is Chopin's unique use of the piano's sustain pedal-and its frequent dampening-that can be utilized when making arrangements of this sort too...please keep them coming Saad!!!
I can only show you how to fish, not give them all to you :P but seriously, I agree a percussion video would be amazing actually!
Thanks for teaching us how to fish for ourselves!🧞♂️
@@ericleiter6179 🙈 🎣
informative! so slur always means same bow? or does it somehow mean 'play as if this group of notes is a single idea'?
We can go over this in office hours!
Goodness notating it by hand. I would’d have found an xml of the piano piece and copy and paste exploded into the string parts. Can you do that in Sibelius? I know it is a bit old school nowadays with so many having switched to Dorico Pro.
No right or wrong way. That’s just the way I like to do it and the way I teach it 👍🏼
@@saadhaddadmusic True of course and I was just a little surprised as it is laborious even in Dorico Pro which is streets ahead of Sibelius for note input. One barely needs to use the mouse which was the absolute bain of my life before I made the switch.
Awesome, thanks! Quick question, how would the string players split a 3 or 4 note divisi? I have honestly avoided writing them because i dont know how they work technically and how i would go about making the parts, but id love to understand it.
I avoided this on purpose too in the video - the concertmaster will typically decide on who plays what. So on top you would write “div. a 3” or a 4 or a 5 etc, and then the concertmaster will divide the pitches as equally as they can in the section. This is usually handled before the first rehearsal so that no time is wasted during the rehearsals on this.
@@saadhaddadmusic Thank you!
Functioning concertmaster here, this is accurate (Saad is a pro) but if it’s helpful to you: 2 line divisi is very often by person, 3 line divisi is often by stand (each stand is on a line), and 4 line divisi is by person. By person implies outside/inside.
@@ViolinistWilliam ^now this is very handy!!! Btw Will is a fellow Juilliard alumnus 🧑🎓
Advice and insight like this from a real life concert master, is priceless to a composer like me, thank you...and yet another reason to never miss a Saad Haddad post emerges!!!
I would like to express my appreciation to your wonderful tutorial, but I have some questions if you do not mind. In the original piano score in E Major, the upper voice plays G GG G A / A BB B B. while Violin1 in F Major scale, plays C CC C D /D EE E E. However when you transpose from E Major to F Major, the notes will only moves up one semitone. Accordingly, it is supposed to be A AA AB / B CC C C. The second point is why you lowered Violin1 one octave down than in the piano score? The third point, you did not point out to the pedal on/off of the piano and its effect on the strings score. Thank you again.
1. Look closely at the original score, it’s in bass clef, not treble.
2. Pedal is on every chord change, so no other way to account for that other than what I did. And whichever hall where this would be played will also have some nice reverb I would hope :)
@@saadhaddadmusic تمام ظننت انه مفتاح صول
Just curious, what software do you use? Like the audio/sound fonts or the players whilst using Sibelius?
Noteperformer 4
@@saadhaddadmusic thank you, btw how did you pick up 31 TET or some variation other than 12 TET? It’s very interesting and I like you composition
@@invinciblehorizon4599 a lot of listening my friend a lot 🙏🏽
12:07 I don't understand why you can't have those 2 notes under 1 bow only, can anyone explain to me? Is it because it is the same note?
You can but it’ll look like a tie. And the player will change bow anyway at that spot. The context of the passage will allow them to know to play those 2 notes as legato as possible. Let me know if that helps.
@@saadhaddadmusic yeah makes sense thx
👍
Thx JS
don’t
😚